Mother Holle - a great goddess? The popular story of the old woman in the clouds holds many surprises. From a rich treasure of Mother Holle myths, Heide Göttner-Abendroth brings to life the image of a cult figure that has shaped human life for millennia. What we once knew as a fairy tale now presents itself in a remarkably different way. In her literary retellings of influential myths, Heide Göttner-Abendroth has this time explored the figure of Mother Holle and the fairy world of the Dolomites. These myths, now known as children's and household tales from Central Europe, were once stripped of their religious and spiritual significance. Although a vibrant belief in the helping power of the maternal goddess was long maintained, the written documentation of the myths ultimately led to an estrangement from the matriarchal world.